1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to techniques for acquiring and setting recording setup information used when data is recorded on an optical disk.
2. Description of the Related Art
For example, a technique consisting of acquiring information for specifying a write strategy for an optical recording medium capable of writing data from an external device and writing the data onto the medium in accordance with the write strategy specified by the acquired information is disclosed in JP-A-2003-228836.
Furthermore, a technique permitting information to be read and recorded according to the characteristics of individual recording media is disclosed in JP-A-2005-122840. In particular, an information processor acquires a unique ID from a minidisk having an individual information record area. Information about the characteristics of individual minidisks is managed by a network server. The information processor acquires information about the characteristics corresponding to the minidisk specified by the unique ID from the network server, optimizes the servo characteristics according to the information about the characteristics, and records or reads information.
Setup information for recording on an optical disk such as a write strategy needs information corresponding to the machine type of the optical disk drive for recording and reading, as well as information corresponding to information about the optical disk such as a medium ID, for the following reason. Used parts and circuit design are different among machine types of optical disk drives and, therefore, setup information for recording best adapted for the corresponding machine type is required. Consequently, setup information for recording that corresponds to the medium ID of the optical disk and corresponds to the machine type is previously stored in the optical disk drive. However, as the optical disk drive is used, the laser diode, for example, deteriorates. As a result, the laser power decreases or otherwise ages. Devices managed by the same ID and produced disk media are different among individual products. Furthermore, characteristic differences may be varied due to design alterations. In this way, the setup information for recording best adapted for this machine type may vary. Hence, it has been necessary to acquire new information corresponding to aging of the optical disk drive of this machine type or characteristic differences. According to the related-art techniques as described above, what is disclosed is only to straightforwardly acquire data about the optical disk from an external device. Appropriate data is not obtained at the combination of the optical disk drive and the optical disk. In addition, the present situation is that any appropriate decision is not made as to whether the strategy data must be updated in practice.